"I noticed a couple of very attractive women, both of them Republicans, in the legislature," Nixon told Bush. "I want you to be sure to emphasize to our people, God, let's look for some… Understand, I don't do it because I'm for women, but I'm doing it because I think maybe a woman might win someplace where a man might not… So have you got that in mind?"

Bush replies, "I'll certainly keep it in mind."

During the last week of the Bush administration, I asked the head photo editors of these news services — Vincent Amalvy (AFP), Santiago Lyon (AP) and Jim Bourg (Reuters) — to pick the photographs of the president that they believe captured the character of the man and of his administration. There are overlapping pictures — of the president with a bullhorn at Ground Zero, of the president looking out the window of Air Force One over New Orleans, of the president receiving the news on the morning of 9/11. It is interesting that these pictures are different. They may be of the same scene, but they have different content. They speak in a different way.

"I suspected there would be a good-sized crowd, once word got out about my hanging," George Bush joked yesterday at the unveiling of his official portrait in Washington.

"When people ask me why I put photos in The Lazarus Project, I say it is in the hope President Bush would flip through my book. Its main character is not a pet goat, but there is a picture of boobs in it."

"In short, the Bush administration led the nation to war on the basis of erroneous information that it methodically propagated and that culminated in military action against Iraq on March 19, 2003."

"[I]f we are truly locked in an ideological war, as the president keeps reminding us, then our greatest weapons are our words. And thus far, instead of fighting this war on our terms, we have been fighting it on al-Qaida's."

"[T]he president conflated every single radical element in the Middle East into one amorphous anti-American entity. It appears that he sees Shiite militias, Hezbollah, al Qaeda, Hamas and the Sunni insurgents as indistinguishable."

"The White House announcement that they view South Korea as the model for a permanent U.S. military presence in Iraq is further evidence of how dangerously out of touch with reality this administration is." Barbara Lee still speaks for me.

"I had just witnessed an effort to take advantage of a very sick man, who did not have the powers of the attorney general because they had been transferred to me."

"The relationship between the United States and the Arab regimes is like a Catholic marriage where you can have no divorce."

BILL MOYERS: "What did you think-- what-- what does that say to you? That dissent is unpatriotic?" "PHIL DONAHUE: "Well, not only unpatriotic, but it's not good for business."

"The Pentagon wanted to send a message to the entire press community in Iraq: Cross us, and we can just lock you up. And we don't need reasons. This is justice in the style of the Bush administration."

"More broadly, however, the issue that is dividing the Democrats is that their leaders believe a muscular foreign policy is what the age of terrorism demands, while antiwar voters believe such a policy may only breed more disasters." Yup.

"The idea is to troll a vast sea of information, including audio and visual, and extract suspicious people, places and other elements based on their links and behavioral patterns." (Ugh! "Trawl," not "troll"!)

"[T]he president's approval rating among whites in Louisiana -- 57 percent -- is tied for second best in the nation with Georgia and Idaho, trailing only Mississippi's 61 percent."

"You use power so you can make life better; it isn't life itself. Obsessing about power or politics takes your mind away from the things that really matter."

"The whole philosophy of using American strength for good in the world, for a foreign policy that is really value-based instead of balanced-power-based, I don't think is disproven by Iraq. But it's certainly discredited."

“I’ve been a friend of America, and I’ve been its enemy. America betrays its friends. It sets them up and betrays them. I’d rather be America’s enemy.”

"But a survey of transcripts from Bush's public remarks over the past seven years shows the president's worsening political predicament has actually stoked, rather than diminished, his desire to proclaim what he cannot abide."

"I've been covering him since 1993 in Texas. That's the way he likes to make connections. He still has some frat boy in him. He likes to tease people."

“What the president says in effect is, We’ve got to press on in honor of the memory of those who have fallen. Another way to say that is we’ve got to have more men fall to honor the memories of those who have already fallen.”

"We are so arrogant because we are obsessed with the present. I've reached an age now where it doesn't matter whatever happens to me. I just don't want anybody to die before their time anymore."

"Wars are always deadly, no matter how perfectly planned. That's why one tries so hard to avoid them -- and why the whole idea of a 'war of choice' is a sin in itself."

"It took a virtual intervention of his top aides to make W. watch the news about the worst natural disaster in a century. Dan Bartlett made a DVD of newscasts on the hurricane to show the president on Friday morning as he flew down to the Gulf Coast."

"How will they possibly explain why President George W. Bush decided to ignore the energy crisis staring us in the face and chose instead to spend all his electoral capital on a futile effort to undo the New Deal, by partially privatizing Social Security?

"What is the Republican Party? Well, it used to be the party of the small-town businessman, generally in the Middle West, generally sort of out of the mainstream. Very conservative. It now represents nothing but the gas and oil business. They own it."

"It's the 'no interest like self-interest' rule, and it's every man for himself. He's discovering the fine line between having a mandate and being a lame duck."

"It doesn't matter if the man can talk. Sometimes, when someone's real articulate you can't trust what he says, you know?"

"Since the federal budget is already in deficit, that means we are effectively passing the bill for this war onto our children through an increased national debt."

"The unenlightened believe it to be the height of felicity to have no enemies. The armchair warrior knows, however, that only a steady supply of enemies can assure him the loyalty of his friends."

"These people want to control what happens in my bedroom, in my body, but they are A-OK with us having killed 100,000 Iraqis, and mounting. I just don't get them."

"He's a churchgoing man who isn't afraid to say he didn't used to be, and that's more important to me than stuff like Iraq. I disagree with a lot of what's happening in Iraq, but that's not most important in my head."

If I'm gonna stop then I'm gotta stop peace / I look like a chimpanzee / But I'm the king / I don't think you can try / to stop term two of my oppression

"If they start saying a lot of voters are upset about the war in Iraq, you can read that as good for John Kerry. If they say security is what's driving voters, that probably means Bush is doing well.''

Essential viewing for everyone who's already made up their minds

Pre-election anxiety disorder? "What civility is, is respect for individuals. It's listening. It is dialogue. And then you may get to higher ground."

"This research suggests that individuals may respond to reminders of their mortality, like terror warnings, by supporting their current leaders."

"Presidents since Franklin Roosevelt have spoken as petitioners of God, seeking blessing and guidance ... Put simply, Bush's language suggests that he speaks not to God, but for God."

"Everyone looks up to one celebrity or another, whether in music or film. And every time you see the celebrities advertising the election, all they say is 'vote.' They're not biased - it's just 'vote.' It's a strong message. It really rubs off on people."

"The most important thing is not who's sitting inside the White House. The most important thing is who's sitting outside the White House."

"Could we get a more fitting description of our democracy?"

'That's true,' I said to myself. 'That's obviously true. He empowers his panics, gives them a motivating role in policy formation. That's it. Bush's panics are the central element in his administration.'

"The idea of a dictionary fulfilling a political purpose may seem a stretch, but language — like most human endeavors — is inherently political, loaded with markers of privilege and power."

"The greatest thing the European Union could do on the day after a Bush election win would be to declare free work visas for anyone who pledged to come over and stay for the course of the term. Someone should suggest it to Chirac.)"

"If Bush gets reelected it won't really be the triumph of business culture at all. It will mean that early 21st-century American politics follows the rules of the country's other dominant culture: the culture of celebrity."

What if the whole world could vote in the U.S. presidential election?

Ph'nglui mglw'nafh shrill R'lyeh wagn'nagl fhtagn! Aaaaiiiiii!!!!:

"Thus the real New York of September 2004 provides the raw emotional energy used inside the convention hall to sanctify an image of the New York of September 2001."

"It's time that the Dems took one for science."

"Perhaps you're not angry at Zell Miller? Aren't you really angry at ...you?"

"As George W. Bush often says, in a very different context, freedom is a beautiful thing."

"During the Ford administration, the Secret Service gave Mr Cheney the codename 'Backseat.'"

?!?!?

"How awkward in Columbus, when W., hanging with Jack Nicklaus, noted that his grandfather was born there, so they should 'send a homeboy back to Washington, D.C.'"

"I'm hoping that Kerry's a seven on a scale of 10, but I'm afraid maybe he's just a five," Phillips says. "But Kerry's running against a zero. So my choice is clear."

"What makes the 2004 election such a challenge to forecast is that we have never seen a Presidential term with a burst market bubble, a recession, a major terrorist attack on U.S. soil, a big tax cut, and not one, but two, wars."

"It turns out that Gil was unaware of the image. Jodele Larcher, the video jockey who handled the visuals, chose the image without consulting the singer, Gil's press agent Marcus Vinicius told Reuters on Tuesday." Whew!

"But these lives, these voices—I really like them. It almost makes you want to be a Republican."

"Don't worry, I'll be the interpreter. And if I don't like the question I'll just change it."

"As he walked out a back door, the vice president vigorously rubbed his hands with sanitizing lotion provided by an aide." Wouldn't want to risk any WMD exposure, I guess.

Because some people have trouble telling news organizations and the ku klux klan apart